ME ME ME!!! I saw the musical first and so, of course, had to read the book. My cousins were all into the book before and I had no idea what Wicked really was so never really cared to read it. Til I moved to the city and saw the musical. However, seeing the musical first totally ruined my reading the book experience! As you all know, it's so much darker and so I'm just kinda bleh about it. Anyone in the same predicament reagarding reading the book?

Yah. same here. But I love son of a witch!! so much better!

Funny, I read the book first and was most displeased with the musical to begin with

I saw the musical first and so I really wanted the book to be like it. But to tell you the truth, the musical was better.

There really is no comparing the book & the musical. The book is a very dark story, intended for adult audiences. The musical took a very few pieces of the book & turned them into a family friendly piece of fluff. The storyline of the musical is totally different from the books, the characters have been dumbed down a lot & it really is best to look at them as 2 totally different stories. I have noticed that very few people like the book & the musical equally well. I enjoyed the musical very much when I saw the touring company this past fall. The cast was wonderful & the songs have become some of my favorites. THe changes are huge, but if Gregory Maguire doesn't mind, I certainly don't. I will always think the book has a much stronger story, but the musical is what it is & I would love to see it again, maybe when it comes back to Dallas in 2007.

Ohhh! I started reading the book first and once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I am however, having trouble finding the time to actually sit down and read SoaW

I read the book about 2 years before I saw the musical. I liked the musical, but the book has more sentimental value for me. I absolutely loved the musical, dont get me wrong! lol

I had a little trouble getting through the beginning of the book, but once it got going, I couldn't stop reading it!

The book is a little hard to get through. I had to re-read some sections of the book a couple of times. I re-read the entrie book recently and picked up even more the second time.

The Vinkus seems too long in Wicked. A lot of it is pretty useless.

OMG! It is taking me forever!!!

umm yea i thought the whole Elphie baby section was rly boring....but if you dont red it then you wont get the rest of the book! :whoa:

hey are two different things, the book and the musical. I find them both really amazing, but in really different ways. As said before, the musical is for families and stuuf, but the book is darker and it has much more political and religious themes. I enjoy noth of them, but not for the same reasons. My advise when reading the book (or watching the musical)would be that you don't expect to find the same version of the musical (or book).

It's really interesting how ones views change depending on if you read the book first or saw the musical first. They are definitley so very different!

I feel I should add that I like the musical now, but my gut reaction was not one of joy

I had no trouble with Wicked at all. I had the most trouble with SOAW. It got really slow at parts and sometimes I would miss something and I would have to go back to read it over again. Good book...kinda tedious...

the musical is better, i did read the book but it was a little above my reading level...ok a lot above my reading level...but that was a year ago, so i'm hoping to try and read it again, and i haven't read soaw yet so i hope to read that after i read wicked for my second time

I am having a really hard time getting through it. Mostly because I read all 14 of Baum's original Oz books as a girl. The land of Oz was always as place of innosence and joy for me, and to see it turned into a distopia is kind of hard for me.

I admire it as literature, and I LOVE the musical, but, meh...

Let me just say I hope that the land of Oz is not remembered for Wicked more than for Baum's 14 books

The musical and the book are completely different. In the Grimmerie, Gregoy Maguire also says how he thought the musical was completely different from teh book. He meant for it to be a tragedy and for elphie to die. But fortunately, that doesn't happen in the musical! But, yea...
I read the book first, then heard the soundtrack and got completely hooked. I'm seeing the musical next weekend!!!!! I like the book too tho!

I'm still in the middle of Wicked the book. I really find it helpful to think of the book and the musical as two completely different things. Like people have already said, they can't be compared.

Although I do like the book with the musical poster cover and the pictures in the middle. It's nice to look at those once and a while if you get caught up in the complexity of the book.

I read the book first and really enjoyed it, even though I had the musical libretto in my mind the whole time. But then I saw the musical and I loved it even more. If I had to put them together, I would say that the musical is better. But there really is no comparing the two, they are both amazing, and amazingly different. But I am really excited cuz (I don't know why it took me so long) I just bought son of a witch today!

I tried to read it but the pages to me its getting longer longer and longer but im on page 290

Ya,I had trouble reading the books.It was complicated and confusing.I much prefer the musical.

Like everyone else said, it is not really fair at all to compare the two!

I had wanted to read the book for a long time and finally got around to it last summer, intending to read it before I saw the musical. There were parts that I loved and sailed through, whereas others took a lot more effort and I really had to push myself. Though, when I was done I was very satisfied to have read it. Overall, I thought it was an excellent novel. I loved all the political and religious elements and how Maguire re-created Oz so vividly.

That said, I went in to the musical wondering how on earth they would make it a family-friendly show! Personally, I enjoyed the musical much more than the book. Probably because such a huge part of my childhood was TWoO, so I enjoy a new look on the world that can bring back the same whimsical feeling. And I can enjoy it repeatedly, which is harder for me to do with novels! Though if the novel were more like the musical, I know I wouldn't have liked it so fluffy! It's just the effect of the different mediums.

My biggest peeve is that they market the novel as tied into the musical. I mean, commercially, I do-- but it should at least have a warning! It is definitely an adult book, with some pretty mature themes and subtext. Though the musical certainly wouldn't exist as it is without Maguire's novel, that doesn't necesscarily mean they go hand-in-hand. They should acknowledge the different audience the novel is intended for!

It was Maguire's writing style. He writes like "Hi, I'm Gregory Maguire. Please listen to my endless metaphors for 400 pages. Thank you." And then every other word was some made up object. "Hunnybunnyfunny flowers"? WTF?

I read the book first, it was just hard for me to get the Munchkinland for
some reason, after that I had no problam with it. I recently read the book again and I had no trouble.

I did see the musical after, I didn't even try to compare them. They're too different really. There's not enough to link them together, yeah they have the same characters and Elphaba is the Wicked Witch of the West... beyonds that... there's not alot that is compatible.

The book was marketed on its own for several years. Once the musical came about, the cover art was changed to promote BOTH book & musical. I think that the script/libretto should be in its own book. The title would be "Wicked, A New Musical, based on the novel Wicked, the Life & TImes of the Wicked Witch of the West." It would have the poster from the musical as the cover art & contain only the dialogue & lyrics for the play. The power of the novel is lost, IMO, when you are halfway through & all of a sudden, there are pictures from the musical. They are 2 separate entities, they should be 2 separate books.

omg...so did I...i was a bit dissapointed with it...but i stopped reading soaw in the beggining...and started reading interview with a vampire...shud I even bother reasing soaw?

I perfer the simplicity of the musicals plot line sooo much more! but i really love how the book examines the thoughts of good and evil and our governement. it took me a long time to read the book though i put it down and restarted it about ten itmes before i finally got all the way through it!

I like the fact that the book was definately more evalutative of the polictal and relgious aspects. I can understand why they simplified the plot line for the musical. Also I have to admit the romatic side of me enjoyed the musical ending more. (please excuse my spelling.)

nenya's back!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! :mrgreen:

I'm only 1/2 way through the book, I find it hard to read at times. I put it down and come back to it later.

Well, I for one could not put the book down! I thoroughly enjoyed Maguire's Wicked. In terms of the story's "grip", it's very easy to get through. The writing style is a bit complex as are the themes of the book, so I can see how that aspect can be difficult to digest. But once you get the hang of his style, it's very beautifully written. Then again? I'm obsessed with reading (*dork*).

I haven't seen the musical yet, but I'm more than convinced that I'm going to adore it beyond all comprehension because I'm prepared for the differences between the musical and the novel. Now if I didn't know how different the two were, I may not have been upset, but very, very, very confused (especially regarding the Scarecrow..). As long as you're open-minded and well-prepared for the differences, you can fully appreciate the absolute beauty of both mediums.

I read the books as a little child (I'm still a child. I think..), so when I read WICKED I was totally swept off my broom (pun intended). It was so...:whoa:

And to be honest, some of the parts in the book seemed somewhat pointless....and then other parts...seemed...corrupting...

But then, I just couldn't put the book down after I started reading. Ended up reading it about 3 times, too.

Ew! I hate SOAW. Well, I don't hate it, I love it, but it's not HALF as good as Wicked!!

I read about half of the book then stopped reading it for a long time. I couldn’t bring myself to finish read it for some reason. But then I got tickets to the show and wanted to finish the book before I saw the show but I still couldn’t get through it, mostly cuz it seemed like there was a lot of detail going on that didn’t need to be there. So I cheated and bought the book on tape…lol! And it made more sense and I got through it within 2 days with someone else reading it!! Although the way the guy read the last part of the book was kind a creepy and scared me a little...

i read the bootk before i was the musical (bootleg) and there is such a big difference. the middle of Wicked and Son of a Witch were really slow and boring to me. but the beginning and end were really good.

I had such a tough time getting through that book, but what made even worse for christmas my parents gave me the book CD. I wanted to listen to the CD so bad but i didn't and i still didn't finish the book!! LOL

Avvi by Catie!!!

That's funny because that is exactly what I love about the book. It questions whether these places of pure happiness really exist. It's nice to think about, but when it comes down to it...it's almost dangerous to be that naive. Life is SO much more complicated than that. And why..? Well, we made it that way.

Maguire shows us in his book what our society does in a way that even close-minded people cannot ignore.

I completely undersand this concept and thought, but I also agree with saevitia. I have admitted that Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was a shock to me when I first read it. I knew it was going to be darker, but the range and levels it took it to made me uneasy at first. Dark Oz was nothing new to me, but Maguire's book was the darkest I have seen or read.

I grew up with L. Frank Baum's books, and consider them to portray the "true" Oz. Oz was supposed to be a world that defied everything that people believed to be true. Witches, wizards, fairies, and all sorts of magical creatures roamed the land, and it was completely normal.

That is not to say it was a land of pure happiness. Baum merely focused more on that than its grimmer points, but they were there nonetheless. It is amazing just how violent or implied much of the original Oz books were. Look at the first book: wolves' heads are cut off, crows' necks are twisted, a house falls on a living person, and rather violent threats are made. Following that, the immediate sequals were just as "dark". General Jinjur made death threats to the King and his friends. The Nome King mentions that King Ev committed suicide by jumping off of a ledge. The events described in Baum's books are just as dark as something you could read in Maguire's. However, Baum wrote them in such a whimsical way, you never realized just how violent it truly was.

Granted, in the later books by Baum and other authors, Oz did become much more happy-go-lucky. Baum even made it so no one could die, albeit they could be destroyed. Even life in Baum's Oz was complicated. He merely chose to focus on some of the lighter sides to the Marvelous Land, while Maguire focused on the darker.

That's exactly what happened to me. I was so disguested with it that I sold it on ebay. :ha: But I decided to give it a second chance recently and rebought it, and I am deciding to give it another try. I only got through about the first 200 pages the first time, so it ought to be a nice experience. I am enjoying it more now that I know not to expect it to be anything like the musical- because it's not. But I appreciate it now for what it is, and I am starting to like it. Give it another try. :mrgreen:

I read the book before the Tony Awards, and I hadn't heard anything from Wicked. I had trouble getting through it, but it was still a good read.

I'm halfway through the book now, and enjoying it immensely. I'm quite bewildered how anyone managed to read it and think "pop musical" however, haha.

I know, isn't it nuts?! I thought the same thing because I'd read the book before seeing the musical. I want to know whose idea that was, anyway. :ha:

It was Stephen Shwartz's idea, was it not?

I know--I think the same thing. Apparently he read the back cover and that's how he decided he thought it'd make a good musical..he hadn't even read the book, he just liked the idea it brought up. But yeah...pop musical? Not what I think of when I read it. lol

He definitely created it into something incredible, though, even if it's a totally different story.

It made me laugh when I read the part where Glinda and Elphaba part in the Emerald City. I'm like....wow, not as much high-belting and sophisticated lighting effects in this version...

I believe he even says that it is a different story completely, just based loosely on his book, in the same way that his book is based loosley on Baum's original.

Oh gosh - my friend saw the musical and then read the book...sort of, she stopped after the first section I think. She couldn't really get into it.

I literally have about 20 pages left and I just can't seem to bring myself to read it. I think I know what happens at this point anyway :roll: I love the musical so much better, but we still have to credit the book for the inspiration My friend likes Son of a Witch, but I might not get it as I don't read much for myself during the school year.

I bought the Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of The West on friday and as of now i'm up to page 337. To be honest, at first I couldn't put the book down. It's like the end of every sectional chapter you're like "so whats going to happen next." Right now I feel like just ending the book However, I do have my laughs at quite a few parts and I've never laughed outloud while reading a book.

I don't know if anyone here hasn't read it yet, so I won't spoil it... but there was one particular event that I read that probably happened earlier in the book but I didn't catch it with my eyes. I was like "when did this happen?"

I read SOAW in december and i was soooo dissapointed. The 2 books are somewhat comparable to the DaVinci Code.... in other words, so much information to take in. I really don't think it matters if you read them before going to see the play.... they're technically 2 different stories with different titles..... the musical is titled WICKED because it's explaining the reasons she became wicked, and only that part alone..... the book LIFE AND TIMES ETC so it's like an autobiography of Elphie. That's how I look of it!

Can I "spoil" that one part I was so puzzled about or not?

i read it before seeing wicked and i loved the beginning and the end but had to try so hard to get through the middle--then i cried my eyes out when elphaba died-then i saw the musical and i just LOVE IT... even though you cant really compare im going to and say the musical kicks the books butt!